Infrared cameras are well known and are increasingly used in a wide variety of applications. However, a typical infrared camera has certain drawbacks and may be limited in its use for certain applications due to its cost, size, and/or power requirements. In general, these limitations may be attributed to the infrared camera's complex architecture and custom, discrete, and specialized circuitry.
For example, a conventional infrared camera architecture may include one or more specialized processors, such as a digital signal processor and a custom microprocessor, with associated embedded memory along with numerous discrete memory devices, controllers, and other specialized circuitry (e.g., application specific integrated circuits). Typically, glue logic and other types of circuitry are employed to form the necessary interfaces within the architecture and with the focal plane array (FPA) of the infrared camera.
Consequently, this conventional infrared camera architecture is generally costly, cannot be easily upgraded, requires significant circuit board area, and has significant power requirements. As a result, there is a need for improved architectures for infrared camera electronics.